Sunday, April 24, 2011

German Press Accuses Israel of Recent Murders

From Germany's Rote-Fahne News (translated):

Inge Hoeger from the Left Party, who is an expert on the situation in Gaza, writes:

"The fact that in only two weeks Juliano Mer Khamis, one of the best-known activists in the West Bank, and now Vittorio, the most well-known activist in Gaza, were killed, while nothing like that before ever happened, is at least questionable. The question that we are have is: Who benefits from these terrible crimes?

On the one hand, two of Israel's most 'dangerous' -- most committed, most famous and prestigious activists - are no longer here. The murders of Vittorio and Juliano could also be a means to enable the International Solidarity Movement a serious blow - particularly in view of the forthcoming second flotilla, and the fact that international activists still can not dissuade them from going to Palestine. "

The JPost writes:

“Inge Höger’s wild conspiracy theory is pure speculation, without any concrete factual basis,” Volker Beck, a leading German Green Party MP and spokesman for the party on human rights, said last week.

“She employs the centuries-old image of the perfidiously murderous Jews. After the terrible murder of Vittorio Arrigoni in the Gaza Strip, only one thing is apparently clear to the Left Party: Israel is guilty. And should the opposite be proven, a lingering doubt will remain,” he said.

The German daily Die Welt on Friday called Höger a “flawless anti-Semite” because of her anti-Israel and anti-Jewish comments.

While the Hamas authorities arrested radical Salafists for the murder of Arrigoni in the Gaza Strip on April 15, the killers of Mer-Khamis, who was murdered in Jenin on April 4, have not been apprehended.

Höger reportedly used German taxpayer funds to travel on the Mavi Marmara last year and agreed to be lodged in the segregated women’s deck aboard the vessel. Critics have longed charged her with spending the bulk of her time as a member of parliament bashing Israel and stoking anti- Jewish state sentiments in the Federal Republic.

The term "flawless anti-semite" seems a bit wrong; probably "pure anti-semite" was what was meant. Otherwise it is an oxymoron.Elder of Ziyon